Chad Mendes says plan worked at WEC 50, will expand game in time

Sure, the 25-year-old Team Alpha Male product is constantly adding skills to his arsenal, but a lifetime of wrestling competition has given him a go-to weapon that has proven capable of delivering victories in all eight of his professional contests.

And so it was at Wednesday night’s WEC 50 event, where Mendes used a controlling grappling game to claim victory over Cub Swanson. But for those critics who say Mendes needs to open up his attack, “Money” says be patient. It will all come in time.

“The gameplan was to definitely get on top of him and frustrate him, and I think that’s what we did,” Mendes told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com). “But I’m still young in this sport. I’ve still got so much to learn, and I’m learning every day.

“The ground and pound and submissions and striking, it’s still coming. Luckily, I have such a strong wrestling base that I can beat guys of Cub’s caliber with still having a lot to learn. I’m thankful for that.”

In fairness, while it was wrestling that sealed the win for Mendes, the Californian did prove willing to stand and trade for much of the opening round. He found early success with his hands, too, but when the opportunities for takedowns came, Mendes simply couldn’t pass them up.

“The first round, I felt pretty dominant,” Mendes said. “I went out there, and that was basically the gameplan. I stuck to it 100 percent. I rocked him with the first punch, and I could see him kind of shake it off. In my mind, I was going to try and headhunt for a little bit, but he was doing a great job of lowering his level, and I couldn’t tell if he was trying to shoot in or not.

“Later in the fight, I felt good. Just going into each round, I knew that I could take him down whenever I wanted, basically. He was keeping his stance pretty narrow and walking into me with not really throwing a lot of kicks. Basically, I was just timing his punches and was taking him down.”

Swanson actually earned the second frame on two of the three judges’ scorecards by landing the better strikes on the feet and scrambling well underneath when he was on his bak. But with the fight hanging in the balance in the final round, Mendes resorted to his comfort zone and shut Swanson down.

“Just watching tape on Cub, I knew that his fighting stance was going to be pretty easy for me to take down. He keeps his base so narrow, that it’s easy for someone to blast through him,” Mendes said. “A guy like Eric Koch, the first guy I fought, he kept his base super-wide, and it just made things a little more difficult. It’s always hard to take down a guy with a wide, long base.

“I’ve been wrestling since I was five years old. That’s what I know. That’s my lifestyle. That’s what I grew up doing, and that’s what I’m most comfortable doing. I think that’s basically why it was so easy to take him down.”

Mendes has been fighting less than two years as a professional, and already he’s making waves in the WEC’s 145-pound division. In his third fight in the organization, Mendes says he finally felt relaxed in the cage and credits his teammates for his rapid career progress.

“This is the first fight I actually felt a little bit more comfortable getting in there and standing up,” Mendes said. “Obviously, Cub’s standup is really good, so he starting getting the better of me later in the rounds, but luckily I was able to use my wrestling to stay on top.

“Working out with guys like Joseph (Benavidez) and Urijah (Faber) and all these guys at Team Alpha Male every day is definitely bringing my game to another level. I’m starting to feel really comfortable and confident in there.”

And as that comfort develops, so will the skills. With each passing day, Mendes adds a new wrinkle to his attack. But with a base skill as effective as Mendes’ All-American wrestling is, the young gun says he’s already preparing for the division’s best.

“Ultimately, the goal is to fight Jose Aldo or whoever has the belt,” Mendes said. “He’s the guy that has it right now, and that’s what I’m going to the gym every day and training for. Of course I think about it. I watch him fight, and I picture myself in there going through situations and stuff.

“We watched a guy like Chael Sonnen fight a guy like Anderson Silva, and everybody expected it to be different. I think going in there and using my wrestling and just grinding on somebody with such great standup like that could be effective.”

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